Microsoft Office update

[DracoM]

Is anyone else having the same maddening trouble buying an update?
Two days of on and off 'contacts', mucking about with re-setting passwords I do not know how many times, and, wow, if you do not use a mobile phone and / or live in USA............they treat you as if you were a Martian.

Huh!

[Old Grumpy]

Is anyone else having the same maddening trouble buying an update?
Two days of on and off 'contacts', mucking about with re-setting passwords I do not know how many times, and, wow, if you do not use a mobile phone and / or live in USA............they treat you as if you were a Martian.

Huh!

No, sorry. Haven't used Microsoft Office (outside of work) for years. Very happy with Libre Office for my personal computer.

OG

[DracoM]

Yes, fhx..... getting in touch with Microsoft should be a doddle, and Office has been the only document-making word processing prog I have ever used - so reluctant to change something I thought I knew.
BUT
the whole rigmarole of simply trying to buy - and failing so far - to buy their update has been an ongoing nightmare of codes, passwords, mistakes etc..
..............so I am keen to have advice about other options.

[Dave2002]

Isn't there a UK office which can help? I don't know about your particular concerns - I'm guessing it's a version for Windows 10, but it might not be. Years ago we had an issue with a wireless keyboard supplied by MS, and on that occasion the MS people were very helpful and sent out a complete new set. Of course dealing with hardware and software may be different, but I think we may have contacted a UK office.

[Pulcinella]

Isn't there a UK office which can help?I don't know about your particular concerns - I'm guessing it's a version for Windows 10, but it might not be. Years ago we had an issue with a wireless keyboard supplied by MS, and on that occasion the MS people were very helpful and sent out a complete new set. Of course dealing with hardware and software may be different, but I think we may have contacted a UK office.

Presumably you're using this number, Draco? (Contact us, Microsoft Support)
Product Info & General Inquiries. Technical Support: +44 (0)344 800 2400.
Maybe it shunts you off to the US.

[DracoM]

Yes, it does................grrr!
But thnx. Will try tomorrow!

[DracoM]

Thx for help: I used the phone number kindly provided up screen, and learnt to my total astonishment that as I do NOT own a mobile phone, I canNOT activate my Microsoft a/c using a landline, nor by paper etc.
SO
I need to find 'someone you can trust' and use their mobile phone to do it.



Wow!

[french frank]

Thx for help: I used the phone number kindly provided up screen, and learnt to my total astonishment that as I do NOT own a mobile phone, I canNOT activate my Microsoft a/c using a landline, nor by paper etc.
SO
I need to find 'someone you can trust' and use their mobile phone to do it.



Wow!

Once I found that it was in my interests to get a smartphone, especially to receive activation codes, etc, I got a smartphone. I mainly use the apps. If it ever rings I don't answer because I know it's a scam, I never phone people on it. For me it's just the baby of the iMac, MacBook, iPad stable - a hand held computer, the minimal charge being added to my BT bill.

[Pulcinella]

Thx for help: I used the phone number kindly provided up screen, and learnt to my total astonishment that as I do NOT own a mobile phone, I canNOT activate my Microsoft a/c using a landline, nor by paper etc.
SO
I need to find 'someone you can trust' and use their mobile phone to do it.



Wow!

Well, at least if you're not in Tier 2 territory your 'trusted friend' would be allowed inside your house and could keep hold of the phone.
Good luck.

But, as ff implies, you should consider getting yourself a cheap and cheerful mobile (assuming you have some reception where you live: check with neighbours to find a network with decent coverage) and look for a cheap deal as an internet/landline add-on or just go the pay as you use route. Remember to keep it charged and to put it in your pocket when you go out: you never know when you might need to use it!

[gurnemanz]

Once I found that it was in my interests to get a smartphone, especially to receive activation codes, etc, I got a smartphone. I mainly use the apps. If it ever rings I don't answer because I know it's a scam, I never phone people on it. For me it's just the baby of the iMac, MacBook, iPad stable - a hand held computer, the minimal charge being added to my BT bill.

I know what you mean and used to prefer landline to mobile but quite recently BT started charging for all outgoing landline calls which used to be free and on my BT Mobile SIM-only phone deal (only £5 a month) I get unlimited phone time, texts and more than enough data for my modest usage (especially now that I'm at home so much and mainly using our network wifi). So it has become a no-brainer to use the smartphone all the time. Incoming calls still come mainly via landline because this is the number most people have stored for us.

Re Microsoft Office update. I kept getting nagged with a message that my Office 2010 was going become unsupported from October this year and hence I would be open to cyber invasion. This did annoy me because the version I had worked fine for my purposes but I did chicken out eventually and updated to Office 365 which involves an annual subscription of £60, which I considered outrageous. However .... using my Microsoft account login the download and installation was very painless. It links to to something called One Drive which is online storage and can be useful as backup and if you want to read your documents eg via your phone. Also both Word and Excel have quite few new features and improvements. So I have reluctantly swallowed my initial annoyance to some extent.

[DracoM]

REALLY appreciate all these helps / advice. I might come back to you on this.

[Dave2002]

Thx for help: I used the phone number kindly provided up screen, and learnt to my total astonishment that as I do NOT own a mobile phone, I canNOT activate my Microsoft a/c using a landline, nor by paper etc.
SO
I need to find 'someone you can trust' and use their mobile phone to do it.



Wow!

Ah - so you've at last discovered that you're not a person unless you have one of those dreadful "toys". Obviously your parents were negligent by not providing you with an embedded one at birth

Unless you really want to get into them, I'd suggest going for a pretty cheap one, and putting a Tesco SIM card in and do Pay as You Go. However, if you do PAYG, do check that the amount stored won't disappear - this is something which some companies do - you think you've got (say) £15 left, and it disappears at the end of the month. You have, unfortunately, to check the fine print. Tesco may have changed their rules since we got ours. Giffgaff are fairly good, and if you need some sort of contract then I believe Smarty (which is really 3 in disguise) is OK.

Also, if you live in the wilds, you might still find that these things are a total pain, as you won't pick up the codes anyway, but take it one step at a time. Maybe check with someone else that you can actually receive a signal in your area. As this is maybe a one off event, I would suggest not bothering with mobile phones if you can find a friend to help you, or unless you really want to experiment.

[DracoM]

Too right, oh dear, only too right.
My Nokia died such a death - tiny, unobtrusive, rarely used ....caput!

[johnb]

Presumably you're using this number, Draco? (Contact us, Microsoft Support)
Product Info & General Inquiries. Technical Support: +44 (0)344 800 2400.
Maybe it shunts you off to the US.

Believe it or not, today I received a genuine unsolicited phone call from Microsoft to ask whether I was satisfied and whether there were any problems. I nearly fell off my chair.

This is because I had to create a business account in Microsoft 365 (free trial so far) in order to publish links to my PowerBi maps/visuals. (No doubt they hope I will fork out loads of dosh on their services.)

[Pulcinella]

Believe it or not, today I received a genuine unsolicited phone call from Microsoft to ask whether I was satisfied and whether there were any problems. I nearly fell off my chair.

This is because I had to create a business account in Microsoft 365 (free trial so far) in order to publish links to my PowerBi maps/visuals. (No doubt they hope I will fork out loads of dosh on their services.)

Out of interest, John, how did you know that it was genuine?